1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to alarms and notification systems, and more particularly to an alarm system for alerting the owner of an object that the object has been moved or possibly taken. The present alarm activates a remote unit carried by the user, to notify the user if the remotely located object has been moved or taken. The remote unit includes means for remotely arming a sensor unit that may be on or embedded within the object.
2. Background Art
In today's society it is fairly commonplace for people to leave any one of their personal valuables unattended for an undetermined period of time. For example, people at coffee shops, restaurants, libraries, bars, and the like may leave personal items behind when they excuse themselves to go use the restroom and the like. People generally leave objects such as their purses, book bags, laptops, or other belongings on or near their table or seats at such establishments, but the objects are then left unattended with the owner potentially being removed a considerable distance away from the object.
While generally the odds are that no great harm may come to the object, the result may be disastrous if the object is intentionally or inadvertently taken by someone who lives far away and is just visiting the area and travels some great distance before realizing his or her error. While intentional theft is rare, it can occur, and the thief is likely to take the object to some other area well removed from the site of the theft in order to search and sell any valuable items or components. Thus, the owner whose object is taken, either intentionally or unintentionally, may have a very difficult time in having the object returned, if the owner is ever able to have the object returned at all.
It is well known and customary in the art to provide circuits which, for example, will sound the horn of a vehicle if the vehicle is bumped or an attempt at unauthorized access is made. For instance U.S. Pat. No. 5,510,765 to Madau describes a vehicle security system wherein Sound, vibration and motion are sensed within a motor vehicle to detect glass breakage and unauthorized intrusion into the interior or passenger compartment of the vehicle. Sound and vibration sensing are used to detect glass breakage with motion detection by means of radar or microwaves being utilized for intrusion detection to provide reliable recurring entry detection. The system may be operated to activate the motion sensing only after glass breakage is detected to permit persons and pets to occupy a motor vehicle having a security sensor system which is fully armed. Numerical values are assigned to specific physical sounds and vibrations with the resulting totals being compared to a trigger level to determine whether glass breakage has occurred. However, the system of U.S. Pat. No. 5,510,765 does not allow for remote alarm, nor is it portable and therefore it is not able to be used from object to object as the user desires.
Also, there are various preventive devices for preventing operation of the vehicle by an unauthorized individual. For instance U.S. Pat. No. 5,648,754 to Hwang describes car security system capable of sending out an alarm when a car door is opened by an unauthorized person comprises a power stabilizing circuit for providing working DC power for the security system, a signal amplifying circuit for detecting small voltage change signals in the car battery and for generating therefrom an amplified signal, an alarm circuit including a buzzer and a controlling transistor, a microprocessor for receiving and then evaluating the amplified signal. In operation, when a car door is opened, a voltage change signal is produced, which is then detected for evaluating whether the opening of car door is authorized. If a voltage change signal is detected during conditions other than the car door opening, it is identified as a false alarm. However, the system of U.S. Pat. No. 5,648,754 does not allow for remote alarm, nor is it portable and therefore able to be used from object to object as the user desires. Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 5,680,096 to Grasmann discloses monitoring of a vehicle interior by detecting sound waves in a vehicle interior either from an incursion source or as reflected as echo waves wherein decomposing the electrical signals representing those detected sound waves into measurement vectors which are compared with sample vectors in a neural network so that a correlation parameter is generated which triggers an alarm when the correlation parameter indicates incursion. The system can respond first to glass breakage before an echo system is used to then further establish the nature of the incursion. However, the system of U.S. Pat. No. 5,680,096 does not allow for remote alarm, nor is it portable and therefore it is not able to be used from object to object as the user desires.
There exists, also, systems which may provide remote monitoring such as the system described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,703,714 to Andrews. This U.S. patent describes a remote alarm system for transmitting an alarm signal to a remote receiver when unauthorized access to a given installation is attempted. A remote portable radio transceiver is capable of receiving signals through the atmosphere from and transmitting signals through the atmosphere to a stationary radio transceiver which is operatively tuned to the remote transceiver for also receiving and transmitting signals from and to the remote transceiver. The stationary transceiver is located at the installation which is to be protected against unauthorized access, and a source of electrical energy is connected with the stationary transceiver. Connected to the installation as well as to the stationary transceiver is a switch for responding to an attempted unauthorized access so as to transmit a signal from the stationary transceiver to the remote transceiver. At the remote transceiver is an alarm which responds to the latter signal for warning the carrier of the remote transceiver that an attempted unauthorized access is being made at the installation. However, the remote alarm system of the U.S. Pat. No. 3,703,714 utilizes sensors that are not integrated with the transceiver and therefore must be hard-wired into place, such as wiring to the shift lever of a vehicle, door switch, window switch or the like. The disclosure of this patent application specifically defines the transceiver as “stationary”, which, according to the disclosure, is defined as “the transceiver is stationary to the vehicle”. Thus the sensor(s) and transceiver of the U.S. Pat. No. 3,703,714 are not portable because the sensor(s) and transceiver are not a single portable unit: and, furthermore, the U.S. Pat. No. 3,703,714 invention cannot be readily moved from object to object as the user desires.
Another remote monitoring system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,905,432, which discloses a vehicle anti-theft and anti-vandalism alarm system having a vehicle monitor which comprises at least one vehicle battery, at least one vehicle microprocessor electrically connected to the at least one vehicle battery, a vehicle transmitter, a vehicle audio generator, a vehicle motion sensor, a vehicle vibration/movement sensor, and a portable monitor in communication with the vehicle monitor. The portable monitor comprises at least one portable monitor battery positioned within a portable monitor housing, at least one portable monitor microchip electrically connected to at least one portable monitor battery, a portable monitor receiver electrically connected to at least one portable monitor microchip, a portable monitor audio generator, a portable monitor illegal ENTRY visual indicator, a portable monitor SHOCK visual indicator electrically connected to at least one portable monitor microchip, a portable monitor switch electrically connected to at least one portable monitor microchip, and a vehicle microprocessor software program contained within the at least one vehicle microprocessor and a portable monitor microchip software program contained within the at least one portable monitor microchip. However, the remote alarm system of the U.S. Pat. No. 5,905,432 utilizes sensors that are not integrated with the transceiver and therefore must be hard-wired into place. Thus the sensor(s) and transceiver of the U.S. Pat. No. 3,703,714 are not portable because the sensor(s) and transceiver are not a single portable unit: and, furthermore, the U.S. Pat. No. 3,703,714 invention cannot be readily moved from object to object as the user desires.
At least one shortcoming of all systems of these prior devices is that they are localized at the object or vehicle which is to be protected against unauthorized movement or access and therefore cannot be readily moved from object to object as the user desires. Furthermore, many systems of the prior art do not enable remote monitoring of the object.